Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-02-09

uiuuhCA Sdil6T, hlCkcu auu CulSu dUcu1 VIZ
world and die of a fever in a foreign hospi
tal?' oh! no, I said, father, I will not b
that; l will tread the quarter deck am
command as, you do No, David m,
father said; mo, David, person that ha'
your principles and your bad habits vii
never tread the quarter or command
My father went out and shut the door afte
him, and said then: 4 will change, l vii
never swear again, l will never drink again
| will never gamble again; and, gentlemen
by the help Of God, have kept those thre
vows to this time. soon after that becam
a Christian, and that decided my fate fo'
time and for eternity"
Another captive of this great Christian
delusion! There goes Saul of Tarsuc OF
ing? To destroy Christians. He wants NJ
better play-spell than to stand and waite
the hats and coats of the murderers VIII
are massacring Gods children. There goe'
the same man. This time he is afoot.-
Where is he geing now? Going on th
road to Ostis to die for Christ. They triee
to whip it out of him, they tried TO scar
it out of him, they thought they woulo
give him enough CT 1t by putting him int'
windowless dungeon, and keeping him oD
small diet, and denying him cloak, and
condemning him as Grimm al, and bowling
at him through the street; but they coulo
not freeze iG out of him, and they could mol
sweat it out of him, and they could not
pound it out of him, so they tried the sur
gerry of the sword, and one summer day in
66 he was deeapitated. Perhaps tbt
mightiest intellect Of the 6, 900 years Of th'
worlds existence hoodwinked, cheated,
cajoled, duped by the Christian religion
Ahl that is the remarkable thing about this
delusien of Christianity, it overpowers the
strongest intellect. Gather the critics,
secular and religious, of this century
together, and put vote to them as to
which is the greatest book ever written, and
by large majority they will say paradise
Lost" Who wrote paradise Losl?" Ono
of The fools who believed i'll this Bible, John
Milton. Benjami in Franklin surrendered to
this delusien, if you may judge from the
letter that he wrote to Themas Paine beg
ging him to destroy the age of Reason"
in manuscript, and never let it go into type,
and writing afterward, in his old days:
"Of this Jesus of Nazareth have to say
that the system Of morals He left and the
religion He has given us are the best things
the world has ever seen or is likely to see. -
Patrick Henry, the electric champion OF
liberty, enslaved by this deiusion, SO that
he says: '.The book worth all other books
put together is the Bible" benjamin.
Rush, the leading physielogist and anatom-
ist of his day, the great medical scientist
what did he say? 'The only true and per-
feet religion is Christianity" Isaac New
ton, the leading philosopher of his time
what did he say? That man, surrendering
to this delusion of the Christi an religion.
crying out: "The sublimest philosophy on
earth is the philosophy CT the Gospel."-
David Brewster, at the pronunciation of
whose name every scientist the world over
bows his head, Brewster sayiug, so, this
religion has been great light to me, a very
great light all my days. President Theirs,
the great French statesman, acknowledge
that he prayed when he said, 81 invoke
the Lord God, in whom am glad to be-
lieve," David Livingstone, able to conquer
the lion, able to conquer the panther, able
to conquer the savage, yet conquered by
this delusion. this hallunication, this great
swindie of the ages, SO when they fiud him
dead they flud him on his knees. William
E. Gladstone, the strongest intellect in
to-day, unable to resist this
this fallacy, this delusiOn of the
Christian religion, goes to the house of God
every Sabbath, and often, at the invitation
Of the rector, reads the prayers to the
people. O, If these mighty intelleots are
overborne by this delusion, what chance is
there for you and for me?
Beside that, l have noticed that first rate
inf1dels cannot be depended on for steadfast
ness in the proclamation of their senti-
ments. Goethe, a leading skeptic, was SO
wrought upon by this Christianity that in a
weak moment he cried out: tMy belief in
the Bible has saved me in my literary and
moral life." Rousseau, one of the most
champions of infidelity, spending
his whole life warning against Christianity,
cries out. '-The majesty of the Scriptures
amazes me-" Altamont, the notorious in
fidel, one would think he would have been
safe against this delusion of the Christian
religion. ., no! After talking against
all bis days, in his last hours
he cried out: "Oh, Thou blasphemed but
most indulgent Lord God. hell itselfis ref
age if it hide me from Thy frown.'-
Voitaire, the most talented iufdel the
wosEd ever saw, writing two hundred and
tifty publications, and the most of them
spitefUi against Christianity, himself the
most notorious libertine Of the century
one would have thought he could have been
depended upon for steadfastness in the ad-
vocacy of infdelity and in the war against
this terrible chimera, this delusion Of the
Gospel. But no; in his last hour he asks
tor Christian burial, and asks that they
give him the sacrament of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why, you cannot depend upon
these tirst-rate lnfdsls-you cannot depend
upon their power to resist this great delu-
sion of Christianity. Thomas Paine, the
god of modern skepties, his birthday cele
brated in New York and Boston with great
nthusiam-Tbomas Paine, about whom
his brother inffdel, William Carver, wrote
in q letter which | have at my house, saying
that he drank quart of rum day and was
too mean and too dishonest to pay for. it
Thomas Paine, the adored of modern in
Paine, who stole another
mans wife in England and brought her to
this land-Thomas Paine, wire was so
squald and so loathsome and so drunken
and SO proHigate aud so beastly in his
habits, sometimes picked out of the ditch,
sometimes too filth to be picked out
Thomas Paine, one would have thought
that he could have been depended on for
steadfastness against this delusion. But
no. In his dying hour, he begs the Lord
Jesus Christ for mercy.